LudumData

Subject 96 by wumpus

[raw]
made by wumpus for LD35 (COMPO)
A platform game where the character's ability to navigate comes from him shifting his shape and either squashing and stretching. This let's him duck, jump, glide and squeeze through a test facility in search of other captives and a way out.

Tested on Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer 11 (eugh)

Keyboard:
Left/Right - Move
Down - Squash
Up - Stretch

Joypad (not supported on IE)
Dpad - Move
A - Squash
Y - Stretch

ISSUES:
The embedded version was having issues because the arrow keys were also scrolling the page. I think I've fixed that but please let me know if I've broken it. Or just try the linked web version or download.
Thanks.

UPDATE:
Fixed a few collision bugs in the level and the missing hint for down arrow on the glide section

KEYWORDS: javascript, html5, platformer, platform
Web https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/59375762/LD35%20-%20Subject96/Game.html
Windows https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/59375762/LD35%20-%20Subject96.zip
Source https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/59375762/LD35%20-%20Subject96.zip
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-35/?action=preview&uid=14437

Ratings

Coolness 57% 3
Overall 3.84 75
Audio 3.11 283
Fun 3.83 74
Graphics 3.97 89
Humor 3.47 82
Innovation 4.00 45
Mood 3.50 136
Theme 4.24 28

Feedback

SkullPixel
18. Apr 2016 路 02:08 UTC
I saw your progress posts and made sure this was the first game I rated. It's really innovative, and a cool idea. I will say though that platforming is really kinda difficult. Nice job with this one! I hope to see you on the leaderboards. ;)
Vantaug
18. Apr 2016 路 04:39 UTC
Maybe the blob moves a little too quickly, making the platforming kinda hard. Nevertheless your game is very fun to play, very interesting platforming.
TheDuckCompany
18. Apr 2016 路 07:28 UTC
Great game but really hard to aim the platform and the jump !
馃帳 wumpus
18. Apr 2016 路 08:47 UTC
Looks like lot's of people are struggling with the movement a little. It's probably because you spend so long testing it you get used to it so if I can do a tweaked version I'll look into making that easier.

Interestingly enough it was originally WAY more complicated. To do a high jump you had to manually squashed and then time your stretch to carry your momentum upwards. I'm rather glad I took that out to make it simpler now otherwise people would really be struggling.
oal
18. Apr 2016 路 09:35 UTC
Really good! Interesting take on the theme, and very well executed. The art is really good, and the sound effects are quite fun.
Anupam Coleman
18. Apr 2016 路 11:12 UTC
I really enjoyed playing this, it's a lot of fun. Great usage of the theme too.
seitnerk
18. Apr 2016 路 13:50 UTC
Maybe the movemnets are a little bit too fast.
But great looking game and fun to play! :)
Goutye
18. Apr 2016 路 14:06 UTC
Really great idea. Innovative! I had fun to play it. But it was painful to save everyone. A little mistake costs you the game. Despite that, I was able to save 3 and get out of this laboratory. One is really way to hard to save him at the first attempt. Only one life, so you have to try to save him at first, and if you success, then you can try the others x)
Conclusion: Excellent! I love it, but feeling sad because I wasn't able to save everyone!
Dragonbearwizard
18. Apr 2016 路 14:18 UTC
so i couldn't beat this game, it's very unforgiving, however i was entranced by the jumping animation, or the unstretch animation and the sounds where funny when you hear someone used their mouth to make that, at least that's what it feels like, but that sound's get really annoying really quick, on my third try i couldn't get up a platform, my jump was slightly too short, however i see the potential in this game, it is a lot of fun, and a great way to create puzzles around the mechanics, movement was smooth and worked well, a few times it was a little awkward getting over gaps because the center of the player wasn't on the platform, but i can forgive that. the graphics where nice too, well done on that. 8/10
馃帳 wumpus
18. Apr 2016 路 16:40 UTC
Thanks for the feedback DragonBearWizard. I think they're all fair points you make and I do think I tend to make things too hard these days so there's probably a few tweaks I could make in the future.

The jump you couldn't make is probably one where you have to flatten out at the peak of your jump as that pulls your bottom up.
dunin
18. Apr 2016 路 19:04 UTC
smart idea. and good level design (at first I was thinking it was bad "too little platform" then I understood the way to use flat form, etc.)
Hard to master because it's different of normal platformer but really cool.
Lifes or checkpoints is maybe necessary (I save the others but not in the same try...)
RockNRedPanda
19. Apr 2016 路 03:05 UTC
Really cool interpretation! the graphics are so cute and the mechanics are so simple yet they have depth later on.
ChuiGum
19. Apr 2016 路 06:31 UTC
Loved the environment, and Awesome take on theme! Great game. c:

Also you can check out my entry (the one where you punch dinos) now. It's working.
Eshford
19. Apr 2016 路 15:25 UTC
Super rad! Very well! :O
Shatter Point Studios
20. Apr 2016 路 14:27 UTC
Interesting concept. Movement was kinda difficult for me (holding/releasing down to jump), but I really like the art. The sound effects made me laugh.
GodsBoss
21. Apr 2016 路 03:48 UTC
What was impressive. After getting the controls, it is a very fine game.
Thought Reactor
22. Apr 2016 路 00:54 UTC
Really fun once you get the controls down. Good game!
grayhaze
22. Apr 2016 路 11:57 UTC
An interesting and challenging little platformer. I too struggled with the movement to start with, especially that early jump where you needed to time it just right, but got to grips with it eventually. Good use of the theme and some very polished graphics. Definitely one of my favourites so far. Good work! :)
TeamScripta
23. Apr 2016 路 16:10 UTC
This game is outstanding. The art is great and the fluidness of the controls reminded me of some of the very best SNES games. The platforming was challenging but in a good way! I would love to see this turn into a full-length game.
Freank
24. Apr 2016 路 13:52 UTC
Hi, nice game ! We're realizing a video with several games of the Ludum Dare #35.
Can you add your game on indiexpo.net ? (it's free)
So we can include also your game in the video ;)
p.s. write #LDJAM in the game's description
SHLFStudios
25. Apr 2016 路 01:49 UTC
liked this one a lot. It was a little difficult though with one hit death and no check points.
SpringCabal
25. Apr 2016 路 12:40 UTC
I really enjoyed how the character's shapeshifting interacted with physics, what with jumping by unflattening and then reflattening to pretend to be a plane :P

The "good" ending was pretty hard to win but i've had fun trying.

There was an occasional bug that caused the character to get stuck in narrow places in a way that prevented any further shifting, but the general difficulty made losing because of the bug insignificant to dozens of other ways to lose.
Phaix
25. Apr 2016 路 16:10 UTC
Great. Really like how the controls are done!
marmpa
25. Apr 2016 路 18:10 UTC
NIce game and really funny sounds.
danieldsj
26. Apr 2016 路 03:50 UTC
This is a great little game. I couldn't really go anywhere because of the stage design, but it was well though out. It reminded me of my grow/shrink mechanic from LD34. Good work.
okoto
26. Apr 2016 路 04:07 UTC
how to spend the first part of jumping, it is playable?
馃帳 wumpus
26. Apr 2016 路 08:21 UTC
@SpringCabal: Yeah, there's still a few collision glitches in there unfortunately. At the end I was so afraid of introducing newer ones with nasty fixes that I had to just leave it as it was. A shame really.

@okoto: Holding the 'squash' button (keyboard down arrow or 360 joypad A button) will flatten the character. Releasing it will make you jump. You can squash again in the air to glide across larger gaps.
APantaloni
26. Apr 2016 路 17:04 UTC
Enjoyable entry. Getting use to the jump takes a while. I like the retro look and feel.
BlennosoftGames
30. Apr 2016 路 01:58 UTC
I like how you made a platformer, where the only two buttons were "shapeshift" yet you could use them to jump, glide, duck, fit through gaps, and all the platform games necessities, just by intuitively using the physics. Very clever thinking.

Fairly tricky to get the hang of, mind you, but I managed to save 2 of those little guys.
thegunmaster
01. May 2016 路 22:05 UTC
Amazing game! the concept is really nice and simple and the graphics and sound go well with it! I had a few minor details that could be improved though. First of, the level was too difficult, But I guess that was because you didn't have time to make multiple levels? And then there was also the jumping. If you press down and your body is on a block but not the center of the body, it wont jump when letting go, though this might be somewhat realistic, it was kind of anoying.
but even with these little annoyances, it was an amazing game, good job!
runvs
06. May 2016 路 09:43 UTC
Super cool entry! I like the shapeshifting mechanic! this feels great and is a nice way of moving throught the levels! Well made!